Jane Fonda Breaks Down Mid-Interview While Remembering Dolly Parton on Day of Her Funeral: 'She Meant Love'

Jane Fonda became emotional while remembering her longtime friend and 9 to 5 costar Dolly Parton on the day the country music legend was laid to rest.

Hours after the iconic singer’s August 29 funeral, Fonda struggled to hold back her emotions as she explained what Parton meant to her in an interview. Parton died on August 25 at age 80 following a “brief battle with cancer.”

“She meant love. She loved everyone,” Fonda told Democracy Now of the legendary musician. “I was in deep hollows of Tennessee and Arkansas, where people lived in tarp paper shacks with no electricity or running water, and she would come in in her full regalia — I never saw her without full regalia. And they loved her so much that they accepted my presence, and it was so clear that she absolutely respected them. That was why there was so much love. She never played down. She was always who she was, out of respect for her fans. She taught me the importance of acknowledging and respecting fans.”

In her original Instagram tribute, Fonda reflected on Parton’s qualities and the memories they shared.

“I never knew anyone like her,” Fonda previously wrote. “She was simultaneously a naughty, playful southern gal from the hollows of Tennessee and a deep, soulful thinker who could see through people right down to their true selves. She was many things…lyricist, songstress, player of many instruments, writer, prankster, visionary, loyal friend, who’d never go to bed before she and her friends had laughed so hard they’d have to cross their legs.”

Fonda continued, “She had a survivor’s instinct and seemed to always know just what to do, just what to say, to make things right...and then she’[d] stick her butt out the car window and moon Kenny Roger[s’] home. She was the voluptuous embodiment of empathy. That’s something of hers she’d want us all to take with us.”

Fonda and Parton's friendship dates back to the late 1970s, when they began working on the 1980 comedy 9 to 5.

Fonda came up with the idea for the movie and quickly realized Parton was the perfect person to join the cast after hearing one of her songs on the radio. Parton agreed to take on the role if she’d let her write the film's title song. “9 to 5” won two Grammy Awards and a People's Choice Award

That decision turned into one of the most memorable moments in the movie's history. Parton famously used her acrylic nails as percussion.

“I thought this sounded like a typewriter, and since that movie was about women in the workplace, I’d stand on the set, I’d watch things happening, I’d come up with little lines every day,” she said in 2021 of writing the song. “I’d go back to my hotel room at night and get my guitar and put it down on tape until after a couple months I had a song.”

The role also marked Parton's acting debut, but she quickly found her footing alongside Fonda and Lily Tomlin.